


Kissing Boys Is Hard To Do

by the_bright_eyed_demigirl



Series: Kissing In General Is Hard To Do [2]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: M/M, also heads up: there are meltdowns and panic attacks in this fic, in which the partners are both sort of gay angsting but it works out fluffy, yosuke's kind of right that he isn't gay i guess...?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 03:24:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6937735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_bright_eyed_demigirl/pseuds/the_bright_eyed_demigirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yosuke Hanamura is not gay. He’s bi. This is not an easy fact to deal with. Also, he’s got a crush on his best friend, Kanji’s trying to be his wingman, and yeah, it’s basically a giant goddamned mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kissing Boys Is Hard To Do

**Author's Note:**

> So just a heads up, in this fic Yosuke is trans and autistic, and Yu is anxious and autistic. This all kind of takes place after Yosuke’s segment in my other fic Investigaytion Team, but you don’t have to read that to understand this.

Yosuke stumbled into his room, eyes red and cheeks blotchy and wet. The world had stopped swimming from tears, but that didn’t make Yosuke feel any less stressed or overstimulated. He felt tired – tired of mourning, tired of feeling, tired of _everything._ Senpai was gone, and he couldn’t even let go without a hundred different issues popping into his head.

The room was dark – thank god – Yosuke couldn’t have taken another fluorescent light. He fell face forwards onto his futon and screamed into the pillow. It always made him feel better to scream, but it’d do no good to wake up the neighbours. Also, the futon was more comfortable than falling on the floor and screaming. He’d done that few times when stressed.

Sometime later, Yosuke stopped screaming and rolled over, staring at the ceiling. He felt… a bit better, though it wasn’t by much. Everything was confusing, nothing was right.

And it was all because of Yu _fucking_ Narukami. Yu Narukami, with his impossibly attractive bowlcut, and sword-swinging muscles, and that fucking smile that made it feel like the world was crashing down but he didn’t mind, god no, and his fucking _arms_ that hugged like nothing else in the world mattered –

Yosuke Hanamura was in love with Saki Konishi. Or had been. Then she’d died, and Yu had saved his life, and now Yosuke had no idea how he felt about anything. He’d been ignoring this the best he could – they were just friends, anyone could see Yu was hot, that didn’t make him _gay_ – but then this summer afternoon on the riverbank had happened, and now…

He shut his eyes again. If he’d looked in the mirror at that moment, would his reflection have yellow eyes? Signs – and the disapproving rumblings of Jiraiya in his heart – pointed to yes. This wasn’t something he could run away from any more.

“I – ” He took a deep breath. “Okay, fine, you yellow-eyed bastard, you win.”

He felt a weight lift off his shoulders. It wasn’t quite saying it, but it was close enough for now.

\--

Yu had given Yosuke a concerned look when he’d come into the classroom the next morning, but Yosuke had waved off the concern. _I’m fine, partner, really! Don’t worry about me, man._ He had no idea if Yu had bought it, but it wasn’t something Yosuke was ready to talk to him about just yet. If ever.

Anyway, there was someone else he had to talk to first. This was going to suck, but hell, it had to be done.

“Hey, uh, Kanji? Can I talk to you?”

Kanji looked at him suspiciously.

“Uh, sure, I guess. What’s up, senpai?”

Yosuke glanced around. There were too many people in the corridors for this.

“Can we talk about this somewhere else?”

They ended up on the roof. Chie had gone somewhere with Yukiko, so the only person on the roof was that weird weather girl Yu was always talking to. Yosuke dragged Kanji around to the other side of the roof, where she hopefully wouldn’t overhear them.

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry for being a total dick.” Yosuke rubbed at his nose. “Look, I’ve been sort of an ass, and I just wanted to apologise.”

Kanji’s eyebrows shot up.

“Bit of an understatement, huh, senpai?”

Oh god, he was _so_ getting the shit beaten out of him. Hopefully Kanji’s aim wasn’t as good as Chie’s. Crotch hits sucked no matter what you had between your legs.

“If you’re gonna beat the shit out of me, then I totally deserve it.”

“What? Huh? I ain’t gonna beat the shit out of you.” Kanji seemed mildly offended and confused by the suggestion. “Apology accepted. You mind tellin’ me what prompted this?”

Yosuke froze.

“If you don’t wanna say…”

“Okay, fine, but you have to promise not to tell _anybody._ ”

“Swear it on my Persona.”

“Okay.” Yosuke took a deep breath. “I kind of might have a crush on my partner, and I took it out on you, and that was a dick move and I’m sorry.”

Kanji yelped and did a double-take.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh.” Kanji thought about it for a minute, then laughed. “Don’t think either of us have been dealin’ with this too well, senpai.”

“No kidding. How’s Naoto-kun?”

Kanji affectionately slugged him in the arm. Yosuke winced. Kanji was not good at punching lightly. That was probably going to bruise. Then again, he did kind of deserve it for being a dick. He punched Kanji’s arm back, and felt a little bit less like a jackass.

“You gonna ask Yu-senpai out?”

“Uh. I’ll get back to you on that. Hell, I don’t even know if he likes dudes…”

\--

“It’s not funny! Oh, Yukiko…”

The howls of Yukiko Amagi’s hyena-like laughter were muffled by the steel door that had come down in between her and Kanji, as was Chie’s utter exasperation. Yu leant against the door, pressing it for weaknesses. No dice; it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Well, this sucks,” he said with a resigned sigh. “Rise-chan, tell them to hit that switch again.”

There was a pause.

 _“It didn’t work,_ ” Rise told him after a minute. _“There’s a second switch needed to open it again. It’s on their side of the door, I’ve sent Yosuke-senpai off to find it. Just sit tight!”_

“All right, then.”

Yu leant more casually against the door, keeping an eye on the corridor in case a Shadow decided to come and investigate. Kanji didn’t like to imagine what else was lurking in the depths of the lab. He wasn’t sure what Naoto’s issues were yet, but he was sure that they were going to be weird as hell. To tell the truth, he wouldn’t have found it surprising if Naoto’s Shadow was a supervillain or something.

Wait, that would actually be pretty cool.

“Who d’you think hit the switch?” Kanji asked.

“Hm.” Yu tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. “I think it might have been Yukiko-san. She’s the kind of person who would find this funny.”

He frowned, and reached forwards. A glittering blue card appeared before him, then shimmered out of existence. Had he seriously just changed Persona in case Yukiko heard him? Yeah, Kanji figured, he probably had.

A thought occurred to Kanji.

“Hey, senpai. You mind if I ask a weird question?”

“I hope you don’t mind a weird answer.”

Kanji chuckled nervously.

“You don’t have to answer, but, uh… are you uh… y’know. Like me?”

It took Yu a moment to get it, but soon a metaphorical lightbulb appeared above his head.

“Are you hitting on me?”

“HELL NO! Uh, what I mean is, I’m askin’ for a friend.”

Kanji had absolutely no idea if Yu had believed him or not. That was the problem with his senpai; he was completely expressionless at the worst of times. Or maybe Kanji was just shit at reading people.

“A… friend? Well, the answer’s yes, but don’t go spreading it around.” A dark look appeared on his face. “I really don’t want to have this conversation with Yosuke.”

Kanji felt bad for a moment, given who he was going to tell about Yu’s answer. Then he relaxed. Yu’s fears had a reasonable basis, but Kanji knew something he didn’t, and both of them would benefit from a bit of secret-telling, right?

Yu nearly fell over when the doors he was leaning on opened suddenly. He and Kanji turned to see the strange sight of an out-of-breath Yosuke trying to get more air into his lungs using Jiraiya. Yukiko was too befuddled to start laughing, but this hadn’t stopped Teddie or Chie from having a giggle at Yosuke’s expense.

“Good work, partner,” Yu said, patting him on the shoulders. “Want a hand with that?”

“Go… to… hell…!”

\--

Saving Naoto didn’t take much longer, due to Yu’s insistence on always doing it as quickly as possible. They’d been tired, but it had worked out well, except for the fact that Kanji was now more confused than ever. Now they had some time to relax while Naoto recovered from their terrible plan. Well, most of the team would be relaxing. Yosuke was going to be catching up on shifts. He was sure his dad was going to kill him for insisting on such a bizarre schedule at the worst of times.

When he had a free moment, he spent it with his partner. He was slowly getting to grips with the idea of ‘being in love with your best friend’. Love. That was a terrifying word, but it was the only one that fit. Sucked that nothing would ever come of it except for getting the stick out of Yosuke’s bony behind, but that was life. Sometimes, it just sucked and you had to deal with it.

This brief, peaceful period of self-acceptance came to a crashing end one night in the backroom of Junes. Of course it happened at Junes. Nothing good ever happened at Junes.

“Hey, Yosuke!”

Teddie poked his head up from behind a stack of boxes.

“Huh? What’s wrong, Ted?”

“Nothing, but I have a super-secret message for you!” Teddie frowned. “Actually, it’s _so_ super-secret that Kanji wouldn’t explain what it meant to me, even when he asked me to tell it to you…”

Secret message? That didn’t sound like Kanji. And why the hell couldn’t the guy just say it to his face?

“Okay, what is it?”

“He said, ‘give it a chance’. He wouldn’t explain it to me! Yosukeeeeeee, what does it mean?”

Yosuke had _no goddamned clue._ Give what a chance? Why the hell wouldn’t Kanji just say it to the face? Why the hell would he make _Teddie_ of all people deliver this message? Was he worried about how Yosuke would react? The guy could rip Yosuke in two if he wanted, why would he be worried about – _oh._ Now Yosuke got it.

“It’s a secret for a reason, man. Sorry.”

Teddie pouted and made huge eyes at Yosuke. Unfortunately for Teddie, Yosuke had grown resistant to the bear’s attempts to guilt trip him very early on. It was a survival skill.

“Seriously, it’s a secret. Hey, aren’t you meant to be stocking?”

Teddie stomped his foot and went back to work, dejected. Yosuke stared at the boxes in front of him. It hadn’t exactly hit him when he’d originally heard it, but – what the hell? Did Kanji seriously think there was a chance? There was no way, no way in hell that it would work out the way he wanted it to. Yosuke Hanamura was not that lucky, damn it. Never had been, and never would be.

Anyway, how was he meant to go about this? Yu had been there during the camping incident. He’d only seen the side of Yosuke that hated anything gay with a fiery fucking passion. Hell, he’d even smacked Yosuke around the head for being a dipshit after Kanji had left. So how the fuck was Yosuke meant to ask him out? Was there a guidebook out there, like Yosuke was sure there were for every other social skill that he’d never managed to figure out himself?

And no, Teddie’s romance manga collection did _not_ count.

Yosuke shook his head and went back to stacking boxes.

\--

Yu gently set envelope number seventy-three onto the table. He had a quota of one hundred, and darn it, he was going to make it. Envelope-making wasn’t fun, and it didn’t pay at all, but someone had to fold envelopes. Plus, he had time to kill, and diligence to improve.

He reached for the next bit of paper, when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Yu took it out, frowning. His heart skipped a beat like it _always fucking did_ when he saw Yosuke’s name on the caller ID.

“Partner?”

“Hey, dude! Oh, uh, you sound a bit sleepy. Did I wake you up? Sorry.”

Yosuke was garbling his words. He was obviously nervous about something, Yu thought. Something had happened.

“No, I was folding envelopes.”

“Oh, right. Man, you have the weirdest hobbies.”

“Did you just call to make fun of my hobbies?”

“What? Dude, no!”

Yu chuckled, but it was tinged with concern. Something was definitely up with his partner. Well, Yu had spent the entire school year bumbling his way through being an amateur detective. Time to figure it out.

“Are you okay? You sound flustered.”

“H-huh?” Okay, yes, definitely flustered. “I’m fine, man. I just have something to ask you, and it’s… kinda heavy, I guess. I-if you don’t wanna answer, that’s fine, but…”

“Do your worst, partner.”

Yosuke laughed. It was still nervous, but that was a good sign.

“Okay, man, uh. Do you remember, way back in, like, May, when Kanji was on the Midnight Channel, and I asked you if Chie-chan or Yukiko-san was your type?”

Yu cast his mind back. Yeah, he remembered that. It had been the first of many, many blows to his poor, burgeoning gay crush on his best friend. Shortly after that had been the bathhouse, then the camping… and somehow, _despite that_ , Yu was still hopelessly in love with his best friend.

“Yes, I remember.”

How could he not? That horrible feeling was curling into his chest again.

“Okay, so, uh… dude, look, before I ask this next question, I promise I’m not gonna judge you for your answer. You’ll probably think I will, but I’m not gonna say any kind of shit about it. Promise.”

Oh no. Where was this going? Yu’s fingers curled and tugged on his pyjama bottoms.

“Okay, what’s this about?”

“Well, uh…” Yosuke took a deep, static-filled breath on the other end. “Okay, you’re not into Chie-chan or Yukiko-san, but – and I swear to you, partner, if your answer’s yes then I’m not gonna be a dick about it – what about _me_?”

Yu froze. His brain ground to a halt. Of all the questions, that was not the one that Yu had expected. How the fuck was he meant to answer it?!

“Okay, so you don’t wanna answer. I kind of figured…”

“No, wait!” Yu’s heart was slamming in his chest. “I – you’re my type, okay? That’s what I was trying to tell you last time, but you never worked out what I was saying because I couldn’t say it outright…”

“Oh. Wait, really?”

“Yes, you can be surprisingly block-headed – ”

“Not _that!_ You seriously… you seriously like me? As in, _like_ like?”

A heavy pause hung in the air.

“I… well, yes.” Yu swallowed. He was probably going to be sick. “You were my first ever real friend, and you’re always just fun to be around… You’re dependable, and easy to talk to, and you’re cute as shit, too. Oh, and since I’m already pretty deep in this hole I’ve dug, those red jeans look really good on you.”

Yosuke spluttered on the other end. Yu cringed. Well, shit, that was probably going too far, wasn’t it? Why didn’t he just know how to quit when he was ahead?

“Did I make you uncomfortable…?”

“No, nonono!” Yosuke laughed. “Actually, partner, now you’ve said that… You really like Chinese food, right? Want to go to Aiya’s tomorrow?”

Wait, what?

“As a date?”

“Yeah!”

Everything fell into place. Yosuke’s nervousness made a lot of sense all of a sudden, and Yu had no idea what to think. So, as so often happened with him, he didn’t.

“Sure, I don’t have anything on tomorrow.”

“Great! So, uh, guess I’ll meet you at the shoe lockers…?”

“Sounds good. See you then, partner.”

“Yeah, see you!”

The line went dead. Yu closed his phone, and tucked it back in his pocket. He looked at the seventy-fourth piece of paper, realised he wasn’t going to reach his quota, and promptly started to hyperventilate.

\--

Yu stared at his own face in the bathroom mirror. He’d bolted from the class before Kashiwagi had even finished dismissing them. For fuck’s sake, he’d already had one panic attack about this! And he had a reputation to uphold. What would his adoring fans think if they found him having a breakdown because his ridiculously cute best friend had asked him out?

He splashed some cold water on his face. Deep breaths. He could do this. The fact that he hadn’t received a campout-style verbal attack was an indication that this was probably going to work out fine.

Yu wiped his face off and wandered out to the shoe lockers, hand on hip like always. Yosuke was leaning against the lockers, tapping his foot. He smiled when he saw Yu approach, and Yu’s stomach did a metaphorical flip.

“Hey! I was wondering what was taking you so long, man.”

“Hey, sorry, had to go to the men’s…”

Yu changed his shoes, heart still thumping, as he listened to Yosuke complain about their school day. When he was done, he patted Yosuke on the shoulder lightly.

“Ready to go?”

“Yeah. Anyway, what was _up_ with Ms Sofue today?”

“I have no idea,” Yu said as they walked out the doors into the outside world. “I think she had another argument with her samurai brother?”

“What the hell?”

“Don’t ask me.”

As they walked and talked, Yu glanced up at the sky. There were clouds gathering, as the always-accurate weather forecast had predicted. It was going to rain later. Usually, that would mean that Yu’s umbrella would be tucked away in his schoolbag. That morning, though, he’d been about to take it with him when he’d changed his mind. If he “forgot his umbrella”, well, he’d have to share with Yosuke, right? No member of the Investigation Team would ever forget to check the forecast.

They got to Aiya before the rain started. The restaurant wasn’t especially busy for once. Everyone was wary of Aiya on a day which promised rain. It was just too easy to lose money to the challenge.

“Ah, hello!” The owner smiled jovially as he saw Yu come in. “You know it isn’t raining yet, don’t you?”

“Actually, I’m not here for the challenge…”

The owner’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he didn’t ask any more questions. They made their orders quickly, and sat down in one of the booths, talking more shit about school as they waited. It wasn’t until the food was in front of them that Yu remembered that this was meant to be a _date_ , not just hanging out.

Yosuke seemed to remember the same thing at the same time. He went red, and stared into his bowl like he was trying to find the Meat Dimension Yu had so often told him about. Yu floundered for something to say, and came up dry. No level of expression could have prepared him for this.

It was Yosuke who broke the silence.

“So, uh… you like my jeans?”

Oh, god.

“Well, it’s not exactly the jeans,” Yu replied, poking at the rice with one chopstick, “but you in them.”

“Oh.”

Yosuke went about as red as the mentioned jeans. There was another awkward silence, and then they both burst out laughing. Yu’s stomach hurt, but the tension had evaporated.

“Partner,” Yosuke said, “what are we _doing?_ ”

“I have no idea,” Yu replied, “but we’re being way too weird about it.”

“Holy shit, even _you_ think this is weird. We really are being ridiculous!”

Yu settled back in his seat. Yosuke was still chuckling, and his face was still red, but at least he was smiling and not staring awkwardly into his rice.

“So,” Yu said, giving Yosuke a moment to recover, “I have to admit I didn’t see this coming.”

“Honestly, me neither. Actually, I think it’s more like I didn’t want to see this coming.” He ate a bite of meat, swallowed, and continued. “I’ve… I’ve kind of been a bit of a prick about it, but you know when you first summoned Izanagi? I remember thinking that you looked really hot. Then, well, shit happened, and I tried to ignore it…”

“Didn’t work?”

Yosuke sighed.

“Yeah, well, you know how that turns out around here. I kept telling myself it wasn’t gay to think you were hot, but then, uh…” Now his neck had gone red. Yu liked it. “You know on the riverbank, a couple of weeks ago?”

 _Oh._ Yu had been certain that Yosuke would have pushed him away, but his protest had only been half-hearted at best. Yosuke had ended up hugging him back, and they’d stayed like that for longer than Yu had cared to count. The whole time, he’d told himself that this meant _nothing_ , because Yosuke was straight and also crying over Saki Konishi at the time, but damn if it hadn’t stuck in his head since then.

“Yeah. I know.” Yu smiled. “I liked it too.”

Yosuke kicked him under the table. They spent a few minutes eating their food. The sound of the rain pouring down outside accompanied them. Yu felt his anxiety ease and unwind in his chest.

“So,” he said casually after a few minutes, “you think I’m hot?”

“Everyone in Inaba thinks you’re hot.”

“Come on, partner, I spilt my heart out to you last night. You might as well return the favour, right?”

Yosuke snorted.

“Okay, uh… Honestly, it’s kind of the same as what you said. You’re easy to get along with, and you’re funny as hell, and _seriously_ hot. I refuse to believe that just fighting Shadows and going to basketball practise gets you that ripped. But, for the record, your fashion choices are terrible.”

Yu pouted.

“What’s wrong with popped collars?”

“I didn’t even _mention_ the popper collars! Methinks the Fool doth protest too much!”

“Actually, right now I’m a Magician.”

Yosuke kicked him again playfully.

“Shut up.”

They finished their meal, paid, and stepped out into the shopping district. It really was pouring it down. Yu was suddenly extremely glad he’d insisted on getting to Naoto quickly. He glanced over at Yosuke, who was looking through his bag nervously.

“Haha, man, partner, you are not gonna _believe_ this, but I totally forgot my umbrella! D’you mind if…”

“You left it at home on purpose because you wanted to share an umbrella with me.”

Yosuke looked at him in disbelief.

“How…”

“I did the same thing.”

Yosuke’s expression changed to one of despair.

“Are you _serious?!_ Crap!”

“I think my place is closer, though it won’t exactly be a romantic walk home.”

“Race you there!”

\--

Despite the best efforts of the boys’ Persona-honed bodies, they arrived at the Dojima residence utterly drenched. The cats looked at them disdainfully from the shelter of the garage as they raced past. Yu nearly tore the door off its hinges in an effort to get it open. They shucked off their wet shoes, and dripped their way into the main room.

“No Nanako-chan?” Yosuke asked, looking around.

“She’s at a friend’s sleepover.”

“Oh, good for her.” Yosuke wiped his soggy fringe away from his forehead. “Ack, that was a really bad plan, wasn’t it?”

“Figures we’d both try it.”

“Yep.”

They stared at each other for a moment, cogs turning.

“So, uh… partner…”

“You can’t exactly stay in those wet clothes…”

“Yeah, uh…”

“Lil Sis did the laundry yesterday, so I have a lot of clean stuff…”

And so, with as much dignity as he could muster, Yu found some replacement clothes and handed Yosuke a set. They were still being ridiculous, despite their conversation in the restaurant. This wasn’t the first time Yosuke had borrowed clothes from Yu. Actually, come to think of it, had Yu ever got that shirt _back?_ Well, he’d never returned Yosuke’s even after the coffee stains had been taken out, so they were even. It didn’t matter.

Yu changed in the bathroom, letting Yosuke take the bedroom. It seemed polite. When he was done, he threw his sodden uniform into the laundry, noting that Yosuke’s uniform and binder were already in there. Holy shit, how wet had his partner gotten?

Yu went into his room. Yosuke was sitting on the sofa, tugging at the shirt. Yu went over and sat next to him.

“Uh. Thanks for the clothes.”

Yosuke smiled nervously. Yu’s stomach did another metaphorical flip. Damn it, his partner was _cute._ He had a bunch of freckles on his cheeks (and his shoulders for that matter), and his smiled showed his teeth just slightly, and it was adorable.

“Can I kiss you?”

SHIT. He’d just blurted that out, hadn’t he? Yosuke jumped out of his skin, staring wide-eyed.

“Uh, I mean…”

“No! I mean, yeah. Sure.” Yosuke was rapidly going red again. “I mean… that’s what partners – _boyfriends_ – do, right?”

Oh. Yosuke had said the b-word. That kind of made it official, didn’t it?

Yu’s only response to that was to lean in and press his lips against Yosuke’s. Okay, this was nice. Really nice. It tasted like rain and Chinese food, sure, but that was nice. That said, it only lasted for a couple of seconds before he got embarrassed and pulled back. Yu stared at Yosuke’s knees, unsure of what to say.

“Boyfriends.” Yosuke said the word like it was in a foreign language. “That’s kind of a scary word.”

“You can keep calling me partner. I don’t mind.”

Yosuke leant his head against Yu’s. Slowly, he moved one hand and put it on Yu’s, in between them on the sofa. Their fingers intertwined, and Yu felt his heart skip a beat.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “If this is too much…”

“No, partner, it’s okay.” Yosuke chuckled. “Actually, can we go back to kissing…? I feel like we should be kissing.”

Well. Yu didn’t exactly have an argument against that.

\--

Yosuke found Kanji leaning against the shoe lockers the next morning, drizzle still pattering against the windows. The fog was imminent.

“Hey, Kanji-kun.”

“Mornin’, Senpai.” Kanji then did a double take. “Shit, what happened? Ain’t ever seen you grin like that.”

“Oh, huh, about that!” Yosuke looked around nervously. “Look, I have no goddamn idea how you knew, and I don’t want to know. I appreciate it – seriously – but can you _not_ use Teddie of all people as your messenger? He’s texted me like ten times this morning asking me what the hell’s going on!”

Kanji laughed.

“Man, who else can I bribe with ice cream?” Kanji looked Yosuke up and down. “Uh, that uniform’s a bit big, ain’t it?”

“Mine got soaked yesterday…”

The cogs turned in Kanji’s brain.

“What.”

“Not like that! Holy shit, I’m starting to understand where the bathhouse came from!”

Before Kanji could muster his typical, flustered response to any mentioned of the bathhouse, he was interrupted by Yu’s arrival. The bancho rested his head on Yosuke’s, who spluttered embarrassedly but didn’t make any attempt to remove his partner.

“Kanji-kun. I have a question.”

“Uh…” Kanji sighed. “Yeah, I did. But I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t already known it would’ve turned out okay.”

“Mmhm. Consider yourself scolded and thanked.” Yu smiled lightly. “Anyway, _partner_ , I think the bell’s about to go. Shall we?”

Kanji watched the two of them head up the stairs together. They didn’t hold hands, of course, but their shoulders brushed against each other. Kanji thought that it looked like the two of them had a weight lifted off their shoulders.

But, man. Yu’s jacket did _not_ fit Yosuke. At all.

He gave Naoto two days to work it out when they returned to school.


End file.
